Question

Why did the Pony Express last for only 18 months?
A.Too many of the riders and horses died from exhaustion and abuse.
B.The mail the riders carried was too valuable to be put at constant risk of attack from robbers.
C.The completion of the transcontinental telegram system made the Pony Express obsolete.
D.The mail service became too expensive for the owners to continue with it.
E.The civil war put an end to all mail services in the United States.

Answer 1

Hint:The Pony Express was a system that exists in U.S. mail delivery. It was made by horse-and-rider relays. It took place from April 1860 to October 1861. The service was the contribution of three men, the first one is William H. Russell, the second one is William B. Waddell, and the third one is Alexander Majors.

Complete answer:
These people think about mounting demand for a better way of communication with the western territories, and especially for the delivery of mail, newspapers, small parcels, and messages.
In the year 1848 gold had been discovered in California, and thousands of prospectors, businessmen, and investors made their way out west in the 1850s. By 1860 because of this, the population of California had grown to 380000 . The American Civil War happened; communications between the east and west were changed to a crucial level. The first day, the first rider set out a ride on the inaugural ride west. Russell and Majors told the gala crowd that the service was the “precursor” to the construction of crossing a continent railway.

The nearly 2000-miles route between the places of St. Joseph, Missouri, Sacramento, and California (the last leg from Sacramento to San Francisco, California, was made by steamer), had at least 200 stations (mostly in Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada) and required about 10 days to cover.
Each rider has generally rode 75 to 100 miles and at the same time changed horses every 10 to 15 miles. It delivered 34753 letters, the important thing that only one mailbag was lost.
It stopped when the introduction of the telegraph system was completed.
With its short duration, the Pony Express is remembered as one of the most important, daring, and colorful episodes in the history of the American West and postal service.

Hence, the correct answer is option (C).

Note:
The service used mainly by newspapers and businesses was remarkably efficient in history, but in another way, it was also terribly expensive. After eighteen months of operation, the Pony Express can complete a total of 308 complete runs and the important thing is that it covers a distance of about 616000 miles equivalent to circling Earth more than thirty times.